


The Mall Zone

by citricaciid, DrakonLady



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Found Family, Gen, Humor, Slice of Life, a lil bit of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29539179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citricaciid/pseuds/citricaciid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrakonLady/pseuds/DrakonLady
Summary: He opened his eyes for a moment. Just to see his friend’s ridiculous faces, (Heymans owed him so much money now.) At that moment he made eye contact with a short woman, with muted makeup and a long almost ballgown-like black dress, across the street. Her face twisted in disgust.Welcome to the Elric Family. Disasters only please.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	The Mall Zone

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a joke and now me and my friends have this. I hope you enjoy this first chapter of this dumb-ass nightmare.

“Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!” Jean Havoc chanted in tandem with the rest of Roy’s friends. Riza held her phone up to catch the moment on camera, while Kain’s laughter had doubled him over. Roy stared at the worm clutched between his fingers with a face full of contempt. He grimaced but the peer pressure was so thick now that Roy wouldn’t stand a chance if he didn’t do this.

Roy threw his head back and stuck the worm in his mouth like it was a cooked noodle. His friends cheered and grimaced and screeched all at the same time in that way teenagers with too much time on their hands do. He just tried very hard not to think about how the goddamn thing wouldn’t stop squirming.

He opened his eyes for a moment. Just to see his friend’s ridiculous faces, (Heymans owed him so much money now.) At that moment he made eye contact with a short woman, with muted makeup and a long almost ballgown-like black dress, across the street. Her face twisted in disgust. Her feet pirouetted and she marched along the street coming straight for the group. Her heeled boots clacking along the concrete so loudly it was like nothing else could be heard.

As she crossed the gaggle quieted, one by one almost as if on a que. If just because, this woman demanded their attention, simply by being near them. 

“Spit that out boy,” she put a hand on her hip. “Don’t you have better things to be eating than a filthy worm?”

“Uh, ma’am who are you?” Jean asked as Roy bowed his head and spit the now definitely dead worm into the grass.

“Trisha Elric,” she said. “I live a few houses down, boy where do you live?” Roy got the feeling he was in way more trouble than any dare or amount of money was worth.

Madam Christmas didn’t like to be bothered while working. Actually, she didn’t really enjoy being bothered ever, at all. The prim-looking woman in the high-necked black dress holding her nephew by the scruff of his neck was certainly a bother. She sighed, moving from her comfortable position across the bar to go see what her nephew had done now.

“What did he do?” Madam said, deciding to get to the meat of the situation and avoid all the parroting around the issue.

“Ma’am you're so-”

“Not my son.”

“Oh,” the woman in the back dress looked down at Roy her eyes creased. “You said you lived here?” It was then that the woman in the black dress took in the surroundings. The heavy smoke-filled air, the stench of whisky, the woman in short dresses. “This is a bar.”

“Uh yes, ma’am,” Roy said, still hunched over trying to accommodate his height with the woman in the black dress’s stature. “That’s my aunt.”

“Your nephew,” she seemed less sure of herself now. Practically confounded by the situation. “Was eating a worm on the side of the street.”

“What the fuck Roy,” Madam said in a flat tone. He hunched lower.

“I was dared too, what was I supposed to do let ‘em call me chicken?” He mumbled. Madam Christmas rubbed the place between her eyes.

“Look you weren’t even supposed to come back today, aren’t you staying at- what’s that girl's name? Riza? I thought you were staying with Riza tonight.”

“I was! Or I still am but uh,” he gestured vaguely to the woman in the black dress behind him. Madam hummed.

“Look I ain’t gonna punish him.” She said. “If you wanna mother him that’s fine I don’t care but I’m just his aunt. The kid wants to eat worms it's his fault if he gets sick.”

“What?”

“What nothing missy. I need you to take the boy out of my bar.”

Roy loved his aunt, he did, and that’s not to say she wasn’t a good aunt! She was! But well he missed his mom, a lot. Madam Christmas was not a mom, she had never wanted to be a mom. He remembered so clearly playing in a dirt-covered backyard, cuts on his knees with Hello Kitty and Transformers bandaged placed haphazardly across several small wounds. His sister’s hair was waving in the light breeze. He chased after her with a stick outstretched and his mother and aunt Chris sat on the porch with two cups of sweet tea.

“I don’t know how you can stand it; I love them I do but all the time?” His aunt said in a hushed tone.

“Oh, now I love them. I don’t know what I’d do without them, Chris. You and I are just built differently I guess.” His mother waved his aunt off.

Then the wreak, not even a month ago. Fire and blood and waking up in a hospital alone. Roy knew the smell of burning flesh better than most. Venessa was older now, already working for their aunt anyway. He’d been offered a place to stay, a small room above the bar. It wasn’t the same but his friends had it worse so he could deal.

Trisha continued to walk with him till they were back in Riza, and Trisha’s, neighborhood. His friends had dispersed back into their own homes. She grabbed his shoulder, her hand pale.

“This may seem out of place but,” she chewed on her lower lip. “My house is that one,” Trisha pointed to a cyan house with a dozen hanging plants around the porch. “If you ever need anything just come and get me.”

Riza’s dad sucked and Roy never stayed over if he knew he was gonna be there. Although it was always hard to predict whether he would or wouldn’t be home. It seemed Riza had been incorrect this particular night because it was one am, and the man was thundering down the halls. Just pacing. It was driving Roy crazy.

Riza stared at the ceiling with unblinking eyes. The only sign she was afraid of what might happen next. Roy grabbed her hand, she flinched away before coming back to herself. Roy pulled the two of them into a standing position. Moving on the tops of their feet, tiptoeing to the window.

She got the idea. Grabbing the bottom and yanking upwards as quietly as she could. They slipped out into the cool night air. Roy pressed his feet into the dew-covered grass sighing as Riza closed the window behind them.

“Where too next?” Riza whispered. Roy elbowed her; in the corner of his eye, he saw a cyan house.

“I’ve got an idea.”


End file.
